


If Hate Is What It Takes

by CarnivalofBrokenDolls (yourrhinestoneeyes)



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Ed's point of view, Gen, Riddler figuring things out for himself, maybe falling in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-01
Updated: 2016-12-01
Packaged: 2018-09-03 14:26:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8717419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourrhinestoneeyes/pseuds/CarnivalofBrokenDolls
Summary: If making Oswald hate him is what it takes to keep him safe then Ed is fully willing to risk that.





	

Edward Nygma knew several things; he knew that Barbara Kean and her lackeys planned to take down the Penguin. He knew now at the worst time possible that Oswald Cobblepot was very much in love with him. He also knew that no matter how angry he was at the fact the only friend he’d ever really had killed somebody he loved that he could not bring himself to kill him.

He had really wanted to, he’d had it all planned in his head, but that was the problem. Even in his mind when he imagined himself plunging the knife into Oswald he couldn’t bring even his fantasy self to kill him. In his mind, he imagined being cliché and stabbing him in the back, but not in a way where he could kill him. He wanted to hurt him, but he did not want the smaller man’s blood on his hands. 

When Oswald had come up behind him begging for Ed to just forget about his love confession, forget about everything and go back to the way things had been before all of this, something in the younger man had broken. He could feel the rage and the need to physically harm him die, he felt himself almost nearly cry at the fear and pleading in his longtime friend’s voice. He couldn’t hurt him, he could understand him, and he could almost feel himself forgive him. 

That was when something new bloomed in Ed’s chest. Despite his anger, the betrayal and the well-placed rage that he was feeling he couldn’t clutch onto it. He couldn’t stand the idea that Oswald thought he found his feelings disgusting or offensive, he desperately wanted to tell him otherwise.

Ed figured out another thing when this happened; that if he held Oswald in his arms and told him everything that he knew then he would be placing both of their lives in danger. He knew he had to tell him goodbye in a way, a way that would allow Oswald to know he was still his best friend. It wasn’t like Ed wanted to leave, to tell him bye. He wanted to take him to a more private room where they could talk, where he could tell him he knew about the murder, that they needed to pretend to be enemies to keep them both safe from fatal harm. Yet that would put them both at heavy risk, Ed couldn’t afford that.

So, he hugged him, he practically fell against the smaller man holding him the way he’d wanted to be held for all this time. He told him to remember that he was his best friend, he needed him to remember that.

Despite how much he found it hurt Ed forced himself to leave with no more words, with no looking back. He very well knew he risked that Oswald would want his head on a stake, that his close friend would despise him to the grave, but Ed had to take that risk. If he wanted to keep Oswald safe he would have to convince Barbara he was totally under her spell, that he was devoted to the cause of destroying Oswald. When the time was right he would take Barbara and her group out, but after that he wasn’t entirely sure what to do.

He knew after it was all said and done he could go to Oswald, tell him what was really going on. He could tell him that he had to pretend to be on team Barbara, earn their two-faced trust until he had a great opportunity to kill the three of them. He could sit Oswald down and tell him that he was angry with him, that he did in a way hate him for what he had done, but that beneath that anger he could feel himself maybe falling in love with him.

But what good would that do? If he destroyed Oswald as thoroughly as he knew he would have to then he wasn’t entirely sure he could handle the sight of him in that state. If Oswald’s pain and heartache turned into a vengeful hatred then Ed wasn’t sure he wanted to break him from that, tie him back down with feelings of love and a need to do anything he could to keep Ed safe. Love was a weakness in a place like Gotham, a place where if your enemies knew you had somebody you would die for they would hold you to that promise by killing you in front of your loved one.

So, if hate and pain and distance was what it was going to take to protect somebody he was almost sure he could see himself falling in love with then that was what Ed was going to do.


End file.
